The King of Fighters 2002/Ryo

Movelist

Command Normals:
1. Hyouchuu Wari - f+A
- Ryo performs a standing chop attack which has decent range and is very meaty
- overhead
- free cancellable out of

2. Joudan Uke - f+B
- has autoguard against air, high, mid-level and special moves/DMs
- can be cancelled after the parry, into a special move or DMs

3. Gedan Uke - df+B
- has autoguard against low attacks
- can be cancelled after the parry, into a special move or DMs

Special Moves:
1. Ko'ou Ken - qcf+P
- Ryo releases a blast of energy from his hand. qcf+C travels a bit further than qcf+A, where qcf+A goes almost half screen
- qcf+C does a very slight amount of damage more than qcf+A, but has greater recovery time

2. Mouko Rajin Setsu - qcf+K
- Ryo jumps into the air, landing with an overhead chop. qcf+D goes higher and further (almost full screen) than qcf+B
- has very good priority and is almost always safe on block
- overhead
- sometimes hits as a hard knockdown, but not always
- free cancellable into

3. Zanretsu Ken - f b f+P
- Ryo repeatedly punches in front of him. This move has a "sucking" effect, in the sense that it can pull the opponent in if they are close. If the opponent gets sucked in, Ryo does a 13 hit combo punching them away
- has autoguard before Ryo begins punching rapidly
- f b f+A is a hard knockdown
- free cancellable out of on the last hit. It is only possible to juggle the opponent after f b f+C

4. Kohou - dp+P
- Ryo performs a rising uppercut that has great speed and priority. dp+A
- dp+A does one hit, knocking down, while dp+C does two hits, where only the second hit knocks down. Usually, the second hit whiffs an opponent on the ground
- free cancellable into
- free cancellable out of on the first hit

5. Hien Shippuu Kyaku - hcb+K
- Ryo jumps forward, kicking multiple times. hcb+B does two hits, going about 1/3 of the screen, while hcb+D does three hits, and goes full screen
- both moves are severely punishable on block, especially hcb+D
- free cancellable into
- even if comboed into, his hcb+D will whiff on the third (and sometimes second) hits against a crouching opponent, giving them more than enough time to punish him

DMs:
1. Haou Shoukou Ken - f hcf+P
- Ryo releases a large fireball that does good damage
- f hcf+A comes out faster but moves much slower than f hcf+C

2. Ryuuko Ranbu - qcf hcb+P
- Ryo dashes across the screen. If he connects, he does a combo on the opponent. Otherwise, he stops and is open to attack
- qcf hcb+A comes out slightly slower than qcf hcb+C. qcf hcb+A goes almost full screen, while qcf hcb+C goes full screen

SDMs:
1. Ryuuko Ranbu - qcf+C, A(immediately after C)
- Ryo dashes forward. If he connects, he does a strong combo on the opponent
- the range on this move is less than his qcf hcb+P DM version
- unblockable
- doing this move is nearly impossible, due to a glitch. The motion of the Ko'ou Ken qcf+C overlaps with this move. Thus, attempting to do it results in qcf+C coming out. The only reliable way to do it is to do the qcf+C part of the motion during a state where he is not able to do his Ko'ou Ken qcf+C. Such states are:

- right before waking up
- just as you land from a jump
- just as you recover from a roll
- recovering from a move that is not cancellable into qcf+C
- supercancelling from his Kohou dp+C(1)
- cancelling a CD attack(this is an exception)
- activating maxmode - possibly some other ways

HSDM:
Tenchi Haou Ken - qcfx2+AC
- Ryo does a fast punch forward. If it connects, the opponent is knocked down and dizzied, allowing you to followup with any combo
- doesn't do much damage but makes up for it with the ability to followup with combos that would end up doing more damage than an HSDM can normally do

Notes:
- cancellable normals are close A, far A, crouch A, close B, close C, crouch C, close D, crouch D
- whiff cancellable normals are clsoe B, close C, close D, crouch D, CD
- CD is cancellable into command moves, specials and DMs

Combos

Anywhere:
1. cr.B, ~cr.C, qcf+C/qcf hcb+A - 30%/45%
2. cr.BBB, Far A, hcb+B - 28%
3. cl.C, dp+C, (S)qcf hcb+A(Buffer:qcb+A) - 55%
4. f+A(early on opponent's wakeup), A, hcb+B - 22%

Maxmode:
1. cl.C, f+A, BC, qcfx2+AC(quickly), (j.C, cl.C, hcb+D)/(j.C, ~cr.B, cr.C, qcf hcb+A) - 75%/88%
2. (Already in maxmode) f+A, (C)dp+C(1), (S)f hcf+A(Buffer:hcf+A)/(S)qcf hcb+A - 42%/48%

Normal Links:
1. cr.B, cl.C/cr.C
2. f+A(very early on the opponent's wakeup), A

Attack Strings:
1. cr.D/CD, qcf+B/qcf+A
2. cr.B, ~cr.C, qcf+B/qcf+A
3. cr.B, ~cl.C/cl.D, f+A (delayed)

Strategies

- Since Ryo's f+A is an overhead and is not cancellable even if cancelled into, you should exploit the "glitch" which allows the command normals to not lose their properties if you cancel into them a bit late. Thus, you can do close C or close D, then late cancel the move into f+A if they blocked, making it hit as an overhead. The main disadvantage to doing this is that the opponent could do a very fast attack in between the cancel, such as Kim's _d u+B. Note that Ryo's crouch C cannot be cancelled late in it's animation, so doing crouch B, crouch C, delayed f+A will not work. Using crouch D instead of close C or close D also works, as his crouch D is late cancellable as well. This gives you an effective low into overhead attack string which is far less punishable than doing crouch D into qcf+B.

- His f+A overhead is very meaty compared to most moves. If done very early on a waking up opponent, Ryo will recover fast enough to be able to land a far A, hcb+B/HSDM combo. Thus, Ryo has a good high/low game with his f+A, qcf+B, crouch B and crouch D. It is especially good to cancel his crouch D into a qcf+B overhead and mix this up with f+A and crouch B, crouch C mixups

- the f+B parry is a great move for countering predictable yet high priority and unpunishable moves, such as Robert's air qcb+K, May Lee's qcf+B in Hero Mode, Terry's qcb+P, etc. After parrying the move, cancel to dp+C(if the opponent was airborne) or dp+A or qcf hcb+P if the opponent was parried on the ground.